How to Become an Actor Part 4/4

Chantria Tram: What are the benefits and disadvantages of becoming a member of a union? Josa Maule: The benefits of being part of a union is that once you are a full member, you’ve got pension and medical, and they pretty much negotiate anything that happens on a film set to make sure that you’re properly paid and that you’re well taken cared of. But once you are a union member, you cannot do anything else other than union. This is one of the things that bother me with the unions because when they’re not doing enough for you, they’re not providing you with opportunities. They’re not providing you with opportunities of getting auditions or working on certain plays. So then as an actor, we’re not working as much. Chantria Tram: So we all know that acting is one of the toughest business, if not the toughest business out there. What would you say is an actor’s biggest challenge? Josa Maule: Everything. Interviewer: Everything? Josa Maule: Everything. Chantria Tram: You have to choose one thing. Josa Maule: Everything. Chantria Tram: Everything. Josa Maule: If it’s one thing, it’s everything because there’s not just one. It’s not just the workshops. It’s not just the plays with the monologue or the film or the audition or the agent or the—it’s everything; it’s the business, and that’s one of the biggest thing, is this because a lot of actors are so stuck on stupid when it comes to the business. And you can have—and I’ve seen so many times the greatest amount of talent, and I use talent very loosely because it’s very subjective, but they’ve got something, you know, something, alright? And I can’t even begin to tell you that they had to confiscate my baseball bat because I was using it on people, figuratively speaking because it’s very frustrating. The business part of it, they screw up their own career. Chantria Tram: Do you have any last words for our aspiring actors out there? Josa Maule: Well, if this did not scare the hell out of you—you know, I love what I do and it’s something I’ve been doing for a very long time. Acting is a very—it’s me and it’s everything who I am. You have to want it. You have to really want it. Don’t bullshit yourself. Don’t lie to yourself. This is something you have to want to do. I enjoy getting up in the morning and knowing that what I’m doing is I’m coming here and I’m training actors. I’m working with actors, watching from—working with actors as young as 18 months to as old as 92 years old, and do this because you want to do it. You know that can do it as a—do plays, do independent student films, and you keep on working it in, working it in truthfully, truthfully. You’ll never know. You’ll be where you have to be at the time and the right place because that’s what fate is. Chantria Tram: Well, I want to thank you for your time here. And if you guys want more information on Montreal School of Performing Arts, just go to their website. It’s www.msopa.com.